More on WSIS

The International Herald Tribune did a decent piece on WSIS negotiations. As Lokman noted, the US negotiators arent' making any new friends. I'm glad to see that the NY Times carried this piece this morning.

This has all been predicted by an Annenberg-UPenn alum: Milton Mueller. His book Ruling the Root discusses the very political problem of the US uniquely controlling the root server, which is the gateway to establishing a new internet address. (Yes, this includes shoutingloudly.com.)

AP misreports on Senate copyright hearing

I know this is a big shock, but the AP published a misleading story. Sadly, it's been printed by (among others) the Washington Post, Seattle Post Intelligencer, and SF Chronicle. In it, Jennifer Kerr blares:

The overriding answer from the two panels representing the recording industry, copyright experts and entrepreneurs was "no [new legislation needed]"--at least in the short term.

This is just not true. At least one witness--the Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters--believes that Grokster reveals a huge need for new legislation. Due to the arcane nature of statutory licensing, digital and terrestrial radio stations alike can play whatever they want and pay a legally defined royalty to central rights clearinghouses, but online music vendors have to negotiate for the rights to each and every track.

This creates holes big enough to drive a truck through. See my last post on this.

Here, in detail, is Peters' reasoning:

Although the Grokster decision contributed immensely to the world of legitimate online music distribution, it did not, and could not, resolve all of the difficulties facing this industry. One area which poses the most hurdles to efficient and affordable distribution is the process of licensing the underlying musical works. Because this process is constrained by practical and statutory antiquities, it creates an incentive and opportunity for piracy to flourish. I commend you for considering the necessity of legislation in the wake of Grokster, and I would suggest that the one topic on which legislation should be presently considered is the reform of the process for licensing online distribution of musical works.

Of course, Kerr misses this subtle detail. Wholly out of context, she quotes Peters' recommendation to let stand the specific question of the Grokster decision itself. Grokster only settled the applicability of the standard for contributory and vicarious infringement to P2P services, and Kerr leaves readers with the impression that Peters is a-OK with the entire copyright status quo.

Bunk reporting by a bunk news service, I say. My letter to the editor, however, leaves that allegation between the lines. I hope the Post decides to publish it.

When Peters--who is very regularly on the side of copyright holders--insists that we need reform, Congress and the public should listen.

Fight WIPO's broadcasting treaty

Go here RIGHT NOW and learn about the eeeeevil broadcasting treaty that's in work at the World Intellectual Property Organization. By my (non-lawyer) reading, it would give broadcasters copyright-like control over what they broadcast, whether it's public domain, creative commons, or uncopyrightable material when it hits the air.

Follow the links for more detail. The treaty itself is here.

WinMX & eDonkey go dark

According to The Register (UK), WinMX and eDonkey are both offline... for now. I suspect this is largely the result of recent RIAA sabre-rattling.

Why do I have a feeling this is going to push P2P users in the direction of open-source programs?

NSA patents net location-tracking method

On Tuesday, the National Security Agency secured patent #6,947,978 for a method of identifying an internet user's physical location based on IP address. It works by triangulating the target in relation to known IP addresses--comparing the delay between the target's transmission and its passage through known geographic anchors. Sounds simple, huh?

Geo-location is not news, of course. Ever been custom-marketed to by websites? ("Find other singles in Philadelphia!" is one common experience.) Gary Jackson, VP of a firm (Quova) that holds 3 geolocation patents, says "It's honestly not clear that there's anything special or technically advanced about what they're describing.

In this article on CNet News, Declan McCullagh suspects that NSA patent could be part of their signals intelligence mission--devoted to spying on non-citizens.

Data mining to prevent terrorism?

Today, Arlen Specter has accused the Pentagon of stonewalling the inquiry to determine what military intel knew about four of the accused 9/11 hijackers.

The method for having acquired this knowledge? Data mining. It was part of a now-defunct program known as "Able Danger."

The data is out there. Noodling around in it is, by some accounts (e.g., Prof. Turow's), the wave of the niche-driven, direct marketing future.

Of course, police and/or intel agents can use data mining to flag citizens and hound them as dangerously deviant--whatever that means. In some cases (e.g., this one), it may be the case that data mining worked out. In total, though (e.g., if used to lengthen the "no fly list"), it is quite a threat to civil liberties. Is this what we pay our government for--to sort through our digital trash in a national effort of cyber-surveillance?

Thanks (again) to Rummy, we ordinary citizens will never know just how much this method has been utilized by our government in an effort to keep us all--uh, I mean, terrorists--in check.

Music labels: Encouraging piracy

This week, Steve Jobs has repeated his public warning to the major music labels: don't raise the price of downloads. He says they're "getting greedy" and behaving irrationally if they think that higher prices will seem reasonable when free music is still just a click away.

The RIAA has convinced itself (and a good portion of the voting population) that with enough industry-friendly legislation, intimidating lawsuits, and public relations spending, they can return to the good old days of oligopoly profits. But they're wrong.

P2P traffic has continued to rise, and the lawsuits increase P2P traffic by serving as free advertising for the freeloading services.

To be fair to the labels, there is money to be made in online music distribution; Apple shareholders just happen to get more than their share. Jobs has a vested interest in keeping iTunes wicked cheap; locked-down iTunes downloads are difficult to play on most MP3 players, cementing the iPod's dominance. Apple makes a slim minority of the money per download at the store; it's all a big iPod sales driver.

If I get my tunes from LimeWire, however, the unencrypted MP3's will play on any portable device. And we can't have that.

Christian band: Here's how to hack our CD

So the bassist from the Christian band Switchfoot is apparently giving instructions on how to disable the technological protection measures (TPM), aka digital "rights" management (DRM), on the band's new CD. It's not the band that decided to lock down their art in a way that keeps many people from using the lawfully-acquired CDs they buy.

This isn't the first time an artist has been this irked about a label deciding to lock down a CD without said artist's permission. Ben Harper was also really pissed when Virgin did the same thing to him. He doesn't want to work with them any longer because of it.

This is, however, the first time I've heard of a band that's willing to break a major federal law (17 USC Sec. 1201(b)) in order to rebel against its own techno-lockdown. Depending on whether prosecuted under section 1203 or 1204, this is either a potential statutory damage award of $2500 (more likely trumped-up "actual" damage charges) or a felony conviction with a max fine of $500,000 and a term of up to 5 years.

That is one brave bassist. Notice how I do not include the link. I like my money and my freedom, so I haven't even bothered to track it down.

So much for the rhetoric of protecting artists.

Crave privacy? Zap that paparazzi's digicam

Another interesting art on CNet News.

China still = piracy

As explained here on CNet News, China is still awash in pirated movies despite WIPO and promises from high-level politicos.

This is an example of trying to export our own cultural expectations onto the Chinese:

There are cultural issues as well. Many Chinese see strict intellectual property-rights enforcement as a zero-sum game in which foreigners benefit and Chinese lose. Historically, the act of copying hasn't necessarily had negative connotations: In painting and calligraphy, Chinese artists sought to mimic acknowledged masters. Too, under Communism people grew up believing assets should be shared resources. "The arguments we hear from the Chinese side are, 'Please lower the prices and then we won't pirate,'" says Thomas Pattloch, chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce Intellectual Property Rights working group and an attorney in the Shanghai office of Schulz, Noack and Barwinkel.

Some things never change.

The end of the wired internet?

Could this be the beginning of the end (or at least the end of the beginning) for wire-dependent internet communication?

If the lobbying efforts by Comcast and Verizon in Pennsylvania are any indicator, I somehow doubt that the incumbents will let their position go so easily.

RIAA pushes to strip you of recording rights

The RIAA is pushing to roll back your right to record music at home. As part of the switch to digital radio broadcasting, they're pushing to mandate that devices capable of recording digital radio feature a host of crippling features.

As reported here by the EFF, the RIAA is hoping to mandate the following:

recordings must be for no less than 30 minutes;

recordings cannot be divided into individual songs, nor will you be allowed to jump between songs;

recordings must be encrypted and locked to the individual recording device (no transfers to your iPod!);

recordings can only be triggered by a human pressing a "record" button or by pre-programmed date-and-time (like your old VCR!), which means no smart metadata driven features like TiVo's "Wishlist."

This is even though the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act specifically gives people the full right to record--even from the radio--in the privacy of their homes.

Write, call, or fax your Representative and Senators today; the EFF page lets you submit your comments electronically.

Boucher calls for mandatory music licensing

In light of the continued success of illegal P2P networks, Rep. Rick Boucher has called for technology-neutral licensing. This would will allow legal downloading services to offer all recorded music and pay legally-defined royalties rather than haggling with record companies and therefore missing out on lots of songs.

It's hard enough to compete with "free"; offering a glaringly incomplete catalogue makes the pitch even harder. For instance, iTunes still cannot carry music by The Beatles.

Boucher was also joined by Sen. Maria Cantwell in calling for a streamlined royalties sytem. They both expressed the obvious and longstanding objection that terrestrial broadcasters pay songwriter's royalties but no royalties for mechanical licenses, while satellite and web broadcasters pay for both. The part they probably elided is that this is just another sign of the preposterous political clout of the National Association of Broadcasters.

They were just two of countless high-powered speakers at this week's Future of Media Policy Summit.

Garrison Keillor: IP Bully?

As explained here on P2P.net, Garrison Keillor, the comedian host of the NPR variety show "A Prarie Home Companion," has issued a cease-and-decist letter demanding the end to a parody of the phrase. A t-shirt vendor, selling shirts that say "A Prarie Ho Companion," has publicized the letter in its entirety.

Garrison: I'm a fan of yours. "Prarie Home" is one of my favorite shows in any medium, and I think you're a great entertainer. I also suspect that your political views are generally well-informed and spot-on.

But let's be honest about the irony of this situation. You're a %&*in' COMEDIAN! Can't you take a joke? Seriously. Back off. Let people heckle you. There is NO CHANCE IN HECK that a reasonable person would think you're hawking these shirts. Further, as a good liberal, you certainly care very deeply about free speech, but you're squelching it right now.

So back off. Please.

P.S. Why aren't you going after this site, which is very clearly a trademark violation that seeks only to cash in on your good name?

Profoundly dumb, insensitive Katrina quotes

About.com has compiled a list of the top 25 dumbest Katrina quotes. Most are from politicians, but a few are from the press. See, e.g., # 10, by the normally top-notch Wolf Blitzer.

Props again to J Tocci for the link. (Notice the pattern here?)

This is what happens when something tears the shellack of multiculturalism off this racially and economically segregated society: politicians and reporters don't know what to say. Sometimes, they're faking a genuine outrage. Sometimes, they're accidentally being racist on the air. Sometimes, they're blaming victims because the oppressed other didn't (couldn't) respond as the priveleged could and therefore did. Still other times, they're accidentally gloating that they'll never have to face that station in life.

FEMA nixes evacuee radio station

Even though the FCC gave a low-power FM license to Houston volunteers, FEMA will not allow those volunteers to set up a radio station from the Astrodome. See the Village Voice story here.

Props to Ken for this one.

Great post on hurricane & coverage

READ THIS.

We paid $500K for a disaster relief plan?

Here's something you haven't heard yet in the mainstream media: in 2004, the Dept. of Homeland Security and FEMA paid over a half million to Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) to develop a 'catastrophic hurricane disaster plan' for the New Orleans area.

Props to J. Tocci for the tipoff. Lenin's Tomb appears to have discovered this. More links here and here (pdf) and here (scroll down).

Let's hear it for the greater effectiveness of privatization! Also, one more round of applause for the MSM for dropping yet another softball.